Head direction cell activity and behavior in a navigation task requiring a cognitive mapping strategy

Head direction (HD) cells fire in relation to an animal's directional heading. To examine how these cells may be involved in spatial behavior, HD cells were recorded while animals performed a navigation task requiring the use of a cognitive mapping strategy. Results showed no relationship between performance on the task and the directional stability of the HD cell activity. The HD cell signal, therefore, appears to not always be used by the animal to guide its behavior during all navigation tasks.

[1]  R U Muller,et al.  Head-direction cells recorded from the postsubiculum in freely moving rats. I. Description and quantitative analysis , 1990, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[2]  B. Gibson,et al.  Cognitive maps not used by humans (Homo sapiens) during a dynamic navigational task. , 2001, Journal of comparative psychology.

[3]  B. Ritchie.  Studies in spatial learning; place orientation and direction orientation. , 1948, Journal of experimental psychology.

[4]  A. Bennett,et al.  Do animals have cognitive maps? , 1996, The Journal of experimental biology.

[5]  J. Taube,et al.  Correlation between head direction cell activity and spatial behavior on a radial arm maze. , 1997 .

[6]  Jeffrey S Taube,et al.  The neural correlates of navigation: do head direction and place cells guide spatial behavior? , 2002, Behavioral and cognitive neuroscience reviews.

[7]  E. Tolman,et al.  Studies in spatial learning. I. Orientation and the short-cut. 1946. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[8]  C. Gallistel.  The organization of learning , 1990 .

[9]  E. Tolman.  Cognitive maps in rats and men. , 1948, Psychological review.

[10]  J. H. Zar,et al.  Biostatistical Analysis (5th Edition) , 1984 .

[11]  R. Passingham.  The hippocampus as a cognitive map J. O'Keefe & L. Nadel, Oxford University Press, Oxford (1978). 570 pp., £25.00 , 1979, Neuroscience.

[12]  J. Taube.  Head direction cells recorded in the anterior thalamic nuclei of freely moving rats , 1995, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[13]  G GENTRY,et al.  An experimental analysis of the spatial location hypothesis in learning. , 1947, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[14]  J. Taube.  Head direction cells and the neurophysiological basis for a sense of direction , 1998, Progress in Neurobiology.

[15]  J. Taube,et al.  On the behavioral significance of head direction cells: neural and behavioral dynamics during spatial memory tasks. , 2001, Behavioral neuroscience.

[16]  SIMON BENHAMOU,et al.  No evidence for cognitive mapping in rats , 1996, Animal Behaviour.

[17]  G GENTRY,et al.  SPATIAL LOCATION IN THE LEARNING OF A MULTIPLE-T MAZE. , 1948, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[18]  H. Eichenbaum,et al.  The Hippocampus, Memory, and Place Cells Is It Spatial Memory or a Memory Space? , 1999, Neuron.

[19]  S. Mizumori,et al.  Directionally selective mnemonic properties of neurons in the lateral dorsal nucleus of the thalamus of rats , 1993, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[20]  R. Muller,et al.  Head-direction cells recorded from the postsubiculum in freely moving rats. II. Effects of environmental manipulations , 1990, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.